James.galbraith

Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) told Sean Hannity that Americans should build a fallout shelter if Joe Biden wins the presidency.

Said Kennedy: “Well, the vice president says he will transform America. He will. And the American people will pay a fearsome price. His foreign policy is hugs and hot cocoa for America’s enemies. If he’s elected, my advice to you is to build a fallout shelter.”

“Get the hell out,” said Hannity, over the senator’s words, asking him to repeat himself.

“Build a fallout shelter,” Kennedy continued. “You’ll need it. Weakness invites the wolves. His domestic policy, he wants you—he wants all of us to surrender our money and our freedom, every bit of it, to Washington.

Watch: @SenJohnKennedy tells Hannity that Joe Biden’s foreign policy is “hugs and cocoa for America’s enemies” and his domestic policy would see “all of us surrender money and our freedom to Washington.” He adds: “If Biden wins, my advice to you is to build a fallout shelter.” pic.twitter.com/kbeFGrDMqg

— TV News HQ (@TVNewsHQ) July 7, 2020

The post Senator John Kennedy: ‘Build a Fallout Shelter’ if Biden Wins the Presidency — WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

The Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute on Tuesday announced the H.266 Versatile Video Coding codec, which will power more data-efficient video capture and transmission on future iPhones. AppleInsider reports: Apple adopted the predecessor to the new codec, H.265/HEVC, in iOS 11. The updated video codec, which was developed after years of research and standardization, will bring a number of tangible benefits to future iPhone users. In its announcement, the Fraunhofer HHI said that H.266 will reduce data requirements by around 50% thanks to improved compression. With the previous HEVC codec, it took about 10GB of data to transmit a 90-minute ultra-high definition (UHD) video. H.266 can do that with 5GB. The codec, as detailed in a 500-page specification, was designed from the ground up for use with 4K and 8K streaming. It'll allow users to store more high-definition video and reduce the amount of data on cellular networks.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Donald Trump's campaign spent the weekend fending off criticism of a pair of presidential speeches panned as racially divisive and inflammatory.

On Monday, the president undercut his own team's efforts at damage control with a pair of tweets. The first criticized NASCAR’s decision to ban the Confederate flag from its races and demanded that the sport’s top Black driver apologize for an episode that, by all accounts, was not his fault. The second chastised sports franchises considering ditching offensive team names.

“Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX?” Trump wrote on Twitter. “That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!”

The tweet left the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, struggling to explain the president’s position, though she said he had informed her that he had no intention of taking a position either way on the Confederate flag ban and was merely criticizing what McEnany described as a “rush to judgment” about the situation.

Hours later Trump followed up with another tweet criticizing the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians, both of which announced they would review a potential name change after years of pressure from Native American groups.

“They name teams out of STRENGTH, not weakness, but now the Washington Redskins & Cleveland Indians, two fabled sports franchises, look like they are going to be changing their names in order to be politically correct,” he wrote, before disparaging Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for promoting the results of a DNA test that showed she had a small percentage of Native American blood.

Trump claimed that “Indians, like Elizabeth Warren, must be very angry right now,” though indigenous groups have led the charge to rename teams like the Redskins and Indians that disparaged or appropriated their culture.

Last month, shortly after unveiling Black Lives Matter signage on his car, members of Wallace’s team reported finding a noose in the team’s garage at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, prompting a swift investigation by NASCAR as well as the FBI.

The FBI determined that Wallace had not been the target of a hate crime and that the noose had been in the garage, which was assigned to Wallace on short notice, since 2019.

The incident took place amid national upheaval over the police killings of Black Americans, spurred by the death of George Floyd in police custody on Memorial Day.

NASCAR has defended its decision to push for an investigation of the episode, with the racing association’s president asserting that “given the facts presented to us, we would have pursued this with the same sense of urgency and purpose” while arguing that the noose was legitimate and that the sport was acting “to protect our driver.”

Wallace, who never saw the noose personally and who was flooded with support, tweeted after the FBI completed its investigation: “I think we’ll gladly take a little embarrassment over what the alternatives could have been.”

On Monday afternoon, Wallace tweeted out a message to “the next generation and little ones following my foot steps,” saying that "your words and actions will always be held to a higher standard.“

“You will always have people testing you. Seeing if they can knock you off your pedestal,“ Wallace said. He urged fans to “always deal with the hate being thrown at you with LOVE ... Even when it‘s HATE from the POTUS.“

The initial coverage was panned by some on the right, who compared the episode to the Black actor Jussie Smollet's fabricated assault. McEnany made the same link as she defended Trump’s tweet in a press briefing on Monday during which she was pelted with questions about it.

The Confederate flag, she argued, was a throwaway mention “in the broader context of the fact that he rejects this notion that somehow NASCAR men and women who go to the sporting events are racist when in fact, as it turns out, what we saw with the FBI report and the alleged incident of hate crime, it was a complete indictment of the media‘s rush to judgment once again.”

She leaned on NASCAR‘s and the FBI’s statements about the episode, both of which referred to the pull rope in question as a noose, while insisting that the “intent” of Trump’s tweet “was to stand up for the men and women of NASCAR, the fans and those who have gone” to its races.

Asked why the president believed Wallace should apologize for something he was not personally involved in, McEnany said Trump felt it “would go a long way” if Wallace would acknowledge the results of the investigation — something the driver did two weeks ago when the investigation concluded.

Contrary to Trump’s assertion, NASCAR — one of the first major sports to resume amid the coronavirus pandemic — saw its ratings increase immediately after banning the Confederate flag from its events. A Fox Sports executive said in a tweet that overnight ratings for the race that took place hours after NASCAR’s ban was announced were up “+104% over the comparable race last season.” The Talladega race, which was postponed a day because of rain, was the most-watched Monday race since 2014.

The network has seen an 8 percent bump in NASCAR viewership since resuming races in mid-May, said Michael Mulvihill, Fox Sports’ executive vice president and head of strategy.

The White House doubled down on Trump’s accusation — its official Twitter account retweeted @RealDonaldTrump's attack on Wallace — but at least one key ally broke with the president.

“I don’t think Bubba Wallace has anything to apologize for," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in an interview on Fox News Radio, noting that “even though it was a noose created to hold the door open, in the times in which we live there’s a lot of anxiety.”

The notion that Wallace “was upset by somebody finding a noose in the garage made perfect sense to me,” Graham added.

The senator also cheered NASCAR’s decision to prohibit the Confederate flag from its events, explaining, “They’re trying to grow the sport.”

“You take images that divide us and ask that they not be brought into the venue and that makes sense to me,” he said.

Graham also argued that the show of support Wallace received from other drivers was “the best” of the sport.

“So I would be looking to celebrate that kind of attitude more than being worried about it being a hoax,” he said.

The president’s tweet comes as Trump has embraced culture wars in an effort to revive his reelection prospects after polling has shown him consistently trailing former Vice President Joe Biden.

A new Gallup poll on Monday found that Trump's job approval had dipped to 38 percent, just 3 points above his all-time low. The survey also registered its largest partisan gap in approval ratings — 89 points — in Gallup history.

As the White House has fended off criticism over Trump’s response to coronavirus and the racial unrest after Floyd’s death, the president has come out staunchly against renaming military bases named for Confederate generals and has repeatedly proclaimed his support for preserving monuments to famous colonial and Confederate-era figures that protesters have sought to topple.

The president has also been vocal about his opposition to the National Football League’s culture wars, including kneeling during the national anthem. In 2013 Trump tweeted that then-President Barack Obama, who had asked the Redskins to change their name, should not use his presidential free time to boss football franchises around.

“Our country has far bigger problems!” Trump wrote. “FOCUS on them, not nonsense.”

Together with NASCAR, both sports handed him a culture-war loss in the same week in June.

Such issues were the focus of a pair of speeches Trump delivered over the weekend to mark Independence Day.

On July 4, Trump pledged to defend American monuments and the country’s “rich heritage" while he vowed: "We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children or trample on our freedoms."

The previous evening, during a speech in front of Mount Rushmore, Trump lambasted a supposed “left-wing cultural revolution” that he claimed is “designed to overthrow the American revolution,” adopting divisive rhetoric on a weekend typically reserved for more unifying language.

His campaign has pushed back on critical coverage of the speeches, with communications director Tim Murtaugh declaring it “one of the worst cases of media bias in recent history.”

“It’s like they decided what to write about the president’s speech before he even delivered it,” he wrote in a tweet.

Murtaugh highlighted portions of a Wall Street Journal editorial about Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech that called it “one of the best” of his presidency and claimed there was “not a hint of racial division in his words except for those who want to distort their meaning.”

“The fact that the media thinks it’s controversial for the president of the United States to say he’s proud of our country tells you all you need to know about how right he is,” he said in another tweet.

Trump's campaign used the weekend to paint a contrast between the president and his likely rival for the November election, former Vice President Joe Biden, who said, “American history isn’t a fairytale.”

“Our nation was founded on a simple idea: We're all created equal. We've never lived up to it — but we've never stopped trying. This Independence Day, let's not just celebrate those words, let's commit to finally fulfill them,” Biden wrote in a tweet.

In an op-ed for NBC News, Biden called the holiday a “courageous, extraordinary day,” but focused on civil rights achievements made since then and on his plans to oversee a return to “America’s foundation.”

The Trump campaign seized on the differing messages, sending out a press email Monday morning demanding that Biden explain why he “refuse[d] to express pride in America” during his July 4 message.

When Biden promised in a tweet, “We're going to beat Donald Trump” and “transform” the nation, Trump’s rapid response team reposted the message along with pictures of fallen statues, asking: “Like this?”

Virginia continued to demonstrate the critical importance of state houses and governorships with a handful of new, progressive laws passed by the Democratic legislature and signed by a Democratic governor that came into effect July 1. Abortion rights, LGBTQ+ civil rights, the decriminalization of pot, an end to incarcerating juveniles for life—all happened in the state because of Virginia’s 2019 flip of the legislature to Democrats.

The Reproductive Health Protection Act overturns a number of abortion restrictions that had been on the books in the state. That includes the repeal of mandated counseling prior to an abortion, a mandatory ultrasound, and a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can have the procedure. Nurse practitioners will be available to provide first trimester abortions, making the procedure that much more accessible. The new law also removes a requirement that clinics providing more than five abortions a month be classified as hospitals, easing regulations for them. "It makes Virginia the first state in the south to proactively protect a woman's access to abortion care and reproductive health," said Democratic state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, a sponsor of the bill. "We want to be proactive in protecting the doctor-patient relationship and a woman's access to care." That's a big deal.

So is Virginia becoming the first southern state to protect the civil rights of LGBTQ+ people in public employment, housing, and credit, with the Virginia Values Act. The law, effective as of July 1, also creates protections for all Virginians, including LGBTQ+ people, in "private employment and places of public accommodation on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, disability, and status as a veteran." It's the first state in over a decade to add these protections and the first since 1993 to add such sweeping protections against discrimination in public accommodations where they hadn't existed before.

Another big deal for Virginia: As of July 1, hundreds of people who were incarcerated for life as juveniles now have a shot at getting parole. Prior to this, juveniles could be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. “It’s a huge victory,” Heather Renwick, legal director of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, told Daniel Nichanian at The Appeal when the law passed in February. Beyond ending life sentences without the possibility of parole for minors, "the bill will provide broader relief and parole eligibility for all kids sentenced in the adult system," she said. It's not a guarantee of parole, but it's an end to the barbaric practice of knowingly locking minors up for life. This makes Virginia the twenty-third state to end the practice.

Finally, possession of small amounts of marijuana (an ounce or less) is no longer a felony. It's not legal, but it's decriminalized, with the new maximum penalty a $25 civil fine. That's huge for a state that had 29,000 arrests for weed possession in 2018, and which was holding dozens of people—disproportionately Black people—in jail for simple possession; 127 people in 2017, to be precise. Cops will still be able to search people's cars and possessions if they smell the drug, and having more than an ounce is still a felony. So is growing it and distributing it, even if as a gift, and those offenses are punishable with one to 40 years in prison.

The law seals past charges and convictions, and new charges won't be sent to the state's Central Criminal Records Exchange. It also makes it a misdemeanor for most employers or schools to ask applicants about past convictions. However, court records will remain public, so potential employers or schools can still get that information even if they can't ask for it or go searching in the records exchange. Marijuana is still illegal in the state unless obtained through the new medical marijuana program, which will be fully launched by the end of summer—the coronavirus allowing.

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According to Nikkei Asian Review, much of the PlayStation's success can be attributed to an unassuming factory in Japan that is almost entirely operated by robots. From the report: On the outskirts of Kisarazu, a large, white building towers over an otherwise suburban landscape. Once inside, visitors are greeted by the whirring of motors as dozens of robots seamlessly churn out PlayStation 4 consoles. Just a few humans were present to deal with a handful of tasks -- two to feed bare motherboards to the line, and two to package the finished consoles. But the actual assembly is done entirely by articulated robots, supplied by Mitsubishi Electric. The 31.4-meter line, completed in 2018, has the ability to churn out a new console every 30 seconds. The Kisarazu plant is operated by Sony Global Manufacturing & Operations, or SGMO, the group's manufacturing arm. The unit has worked with video game unit Sony Interactive Entertainment to bring cutting-edge technologies to the facility. One of the plant's crowning achievements is the use of robots to attach wires, tape and other flexible parts to the consoles. Twenty-six out of 32 robots at the Kisarazu plant are dedicated to the task, deftly handling materials most robots would find too finicky. "There's probably no other site that can manipulate robots in this manner," said an engineer. Every process -- all the way to final packaging -- is automated. The blend of robotic and human labor is painstakingly optimized with a priority on return on investment.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Technology firm Fujitsu announced a new "Work Life Shift" program that will offer unprecedented flexibility to its 80,000 workers in Japan. "Staff will be able to work flexible hours, and working from home will be standard wherever possible," reports the BBC. From the report: In a statement sent to the BBC, Fujitsu said it "will introduce a new way of working that promises a more empowering, productive, and creative experience for employees that will boost innovation and deliver new value to its customers and society." Under the plan employees will "begin to primarily work on a remote basis to achieve a working style that allows them to flexibly use their time according to the contents of their work, business roles, and lifestyle." The company also said the program would allow staff to choose where they worked, whether that was from home, a major corporate hub or a satellite office. Fujitsu believes that that the increased autonomy offered to its workers will help to improve the performance of teams and increase productivity.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As Laura Clawson wrote earlier, Pew polling has found that voter sentiment against impeached racist Donald Trump is dramatically higher in coronavirus hotspots. “Pew surveyed voters in late March and the same people again in late June, and found 17% of those who approved of the president in March now disapprove,” Bloomberg reported. “[T]hose who live in counties with a high number of virus cases were 50% more likely to say they no longer approve of Trump.”

As Civiqs’ daily tracking of voter attitudes shows, American voters are already deeply souring on Trump’s pandemic response, putting new states into battleground status. The last thing he needs is new disease hotspots in battleground states, yet that is exactly what is happening. 

At this point, per our daily Civiqs tracking polls, there aren’t a lot of states left happy with Trump’s response to the virus. 

But as harsh as that national map looks, with voters in all but the reddest states disapproving of the federal response, let’s look at the shift in those answering “not satisfied at all” in the last month, in key battlegrounds, as compared to the national average. 

The starred and bolded states are the core battlegrounds—the ones that will ultimately decide the election. (In other words, if presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins Montana, he’s already won all of the starred states.) And yes, Trump is at risk of losing Alaska and Montana (thus giving Democratic Senate candidates a fighting chance in those otherwise red states). 

A couple of things stand out in these numbers: 

• You can tell which 2016 Trump states he’s most at-risk of losing: Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This has been amply confirmed by public polling. In these three states, strong disapproval of Trump’s handling of the pandemic is at nearly half of all voters. It’s hard to see how Trump digs himself out of that hole. (Flipping those three states alone would give us a 269-269 tie, nightmarishly enough.)  
• Among the core battlegrounds, Trump suffered his worst -8 drops in Florida and Pennsylvania—the two biggest states. He can’t win the election without both of them. Similar -8 drops has threatened to put Michigan and Wisconsin out of reach, and helped put Alaska, Iowa, and Montana in play.   
• Nothing in the charts suggests Trump has hit bottom. The current surge in pandemic cases will result in a new surge in deaths starting sometime next week. Among the states hardest hit in this new wave are battleground states with idiot Republican governors: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Texas. Those Republicans opened their states too quickly to please Trump, and it will cost them in lives, economic devastation, and votes.   
• There is some correlation between how competitive a state is, and how high pandemic response disapprovals are. Iowa, Ohio, Montana, and Texas are still in the low- to mid-40s, and they are among the least likely states on this list to flip Blue. Florida and Georgia, in the mid-40s, will be the toughest core battleground states to flip. This offers some evidence (though nowhere near conclusive, to be sure), that Trump’s reelection chances are closely tied to the pandemic. 

We’re only four months from the election, so how is Trump going to turn these numbers around? No vaccine is in sight. He’s not actually doing anything to mitigate the spread of the disease, or the economic devastation it’s leaving in its wake. He's not even talking about it, because he’s not addled enough to realize that the issue is killing him. Worse than that, they're hoping that people “grow numb to the escalating death toll and learn to accept tens of thousands of new cases a day.”

It hasn’t worked so far, so why would it work in the months ahead? 

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Hovertext:
Who writes 613 different rules in the handbook and expects everyone to remember them all the time?

Today's News:

A woman claiming to be a Trump and QAnon spokesperson filmed herself destroying an entire display of COVID-19 face masks at a Target store in Scottsdale, Arizona. She was identified as Melissa Rein Lively, who runs a PR company.

“Finally, we meet the end of the road,” she began, before proceed to rip every face mask off its hanger and throw them to the floor while continuing her tirade. “I’ve been looking forward to this sh*t all my f**king life. So Target, I’m not playing any more f**king games. This sh*t is fucking over. F*k this sh*t. No, I’m not doing it. This sh*t’s over. This sh*t’s over. This sh*t’s over.”

When Target employees tried to stop her, she snapped at them, saying, “You let everybody else do it, but I can’t do it because I’m a blond white woman?”

When the police arrived, “Target Karen” proclaimed that she was a spokesperson for QAnon and the White House.”

“Call Donald Trump and ask him if you don’t believe me.”

The police then arrested her as she screamed, “You’re doing this because I’m Jewish!”

…then she got arrested on IG Live saying she is a spokesperson for QAnon & the White House and to “call Donald Trump and ask him” because she can’t share any “classified information.” pic.twitter.com/Bg1OPaimUQ

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) July 5, 2020

Later, she recorded a video in a car.

“I got all the Nazi gold,” she said, showing off something she called the “crystal key.”

View this post on Instagram

This was her get away and the aftermath of her destroying target. No arrest made, she was allowed to leave freely. . . . #karen #karenmemes #memes #tiktok #like #beyonce #publicfreakout #funnyvideos #funny #funnymemes #memes #comedy #meme #tiktok #kyliejenner #lol #lb #fb #follow #viral #lgbt #like #explorepage #instagram #love #humor #video #jokes #laugh

A post shared by CrazyKarens LLC (@crazykarens) on Jul 5, 2020 at 11:35am PDT

The post ‘Target Karen’ Obliterates Store’s Face Mask Display, Then Claims She’s White House Spokesperson: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn posted a video to social media over the weekend in which he led a group of people in reciting the oath of office, which was appended with a phrase associated with the conspiracy theorist group QAnon: “where we go one, we go all.”

#TakeTheOath
Happy 4th of July
God Bless America
⁦@SidneyPowell1⁩
⁦@molmccann⁩
⁦@BarbaraRedgate⁩
⁦@JosephJFlynn1⁩
⁦@GoJackFlynn⁩
⁦@flynn_neill⁩
⁦@lofly727⁩
⁦@TJHproject⁩
pic.twitter.com/Z2LCsgHLkw

— General Flynn (@GenFlynn) July 5, 2020

QAnon, is an alt-right conspiracy theory group that believes in a “deep state” plot against the government to undermine Trump. The phrase “where we go one, we go all” is often shortened to “WWG1WGA” and used as a hashtag by Q followers.

Flynn’s lawyer Sidney Powell told the Washington Examiner that the phrase had nothing to do with QAnon: “The slogan comes from an engraved bell on JFK’S sailboat — acknowledging the unity of mankind. The oath is obvious — the federal oath in support of our Constitution. He wanted to encourage people to think about being a citizen. Don’t read anything else into it.”

The post Michael Flynn Makes Pledge to QAnon in July 4 Video: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

New Yorker Corey Hannon, who posted a vile video to social media over the weekend in wish he wished COVID on others while partying on Fire Island, is apologizing after the clip went viral. Hannon’s clip was among multiple videos of men partying in the gay resort of Fire Island Pines with nary a mask in sight and little to no social distancing that spread on social media Sunday.

ALSO JUST IN: ‘Distressed’ Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association Lays Down New COVID-19 Rules After Party Videos Go Viral

Hannon had decided he was done with COVID-19 on June 30 according to his earlier Facebook posts, and posted a video to his Instagram story attacking others who had called him out for going to Fire Island to party.

Said Hannon in the clip (below): “You know what, I did have COVID. Everyone knows I had COVID, and you know what I did? I sat in my f**king bedroom and quarantined myself for eight f**king days. And suffered through COVID. And now I’m out celebrating. So go f**k yourselves. I hope all of you get f**king COVID, you nasty nasty trolls.”

Corey Hannon, who admits he has Covid-19 & is partying ar Fire Island Pines, posted a now deleted video after being called out on social media for being irresponsible.@evanrosskatz @MajorPhilebrity @tyleroakley @yashar @PinkNews @Queerty @tlrd @nypost @DanaKennedyLive #COVIDIOT pic.twitter.com/4nDuDRH819

— Chris Weidner (@CWNewser) July 5, 2020

Hannon posted an apology video (below) late on Sunday.

Said Hannon: “I’m sure you guys have been waiting for this. … I am sorry for the misinterpretation that I portrayed on my social media. I am sorry for the video that got posted to my story that wished everyone would get COVID. That was a video that was never supposed to be on my story. It was a video that was sent to a mutual friend and it was completely out of purely bad humor between two friends. …. I am terribly sorry that this happened. I would never go out there and righteously infect people. I did what I thought was my part. I apologize that I went out, maybe too early. I can’t make up for the poor choice that I made. I’m a human being. I made a mistake and I am seriously sorry for that.”

Hannon also gave a lengthy explanation of his COVID-19 status timeline and says he assumes he had COVID but hasn’t got his test back.

“I am not a murderer. I’m not a bad person,” said Hannon in the apology.

“This cancel culture we’ve created has got to end,” he added. “The messages I’m getting, the death threats, waking up with reporters outside my house, being followed, being booed off a train last night. It’s not okay. We can’t tell people to go kill themselves. I’m lucky I’m very strong and I have an amazing mother that helps me through all this.”

The Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association (FIPPOA) posted new rules late on Sunday as well, and President Jay Pagano said, “We are distressed by the irresponsible behavior of some residents and visitors.”

In related news, PJ McAteer, the Managing Director of the Fire Island Pines Commercial District, released a statement about the weekend, and said that Hannon “is no longer welcome at any bar or restaurant in Fire Island Pines.”

#BREAKING "Never have we been so sickened by the actions of one person. We want to make a clear statement that Mr. Hannon is no longer welcome at any bar or restaurant in Fire Island Pines."
—Statement from PJ McAteer, Managing Director, #FIP Comm. Dist.#fireisland #COVIDIOTS pic.twitter.com/5TuPqq9cjV

— Chris Weidner (@CWNewser) July 6, 2020

The post Defiant Fire Island Partier Who Wished COVID on Others, Apologizes in New Video: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Democratic political consultants dream of issues like marijuana legalization. Democrats are overwhelmingly in favor of it, polls show. So are independents. A majority of Republicans favor it now too. It motivates progressives, young people, and Black Americans to vote. Put it on the ballot, and it’s proved a sure way to boost turnout for supportive politicians. It’s popular in key presidential-election states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Florida, Arizona, and Virginia. There’s no clear political downside—although marijuana legalization motivates its supporters, it doesn’t motivate its opponents. For the Democratic presidential nominee, the upsides of supporting it would include energizing a very committed group of single-issue voters and making a major move toward criminal-justice reform and the Bernie Sanders agenda.

Joe Biden won’t inhale.

Democrats eager for Biden to support legalization have theories about why he won’t. His aides insist they’re all wrong. It’s not, they say, because he’s from a generation scared by Reefer Madness. It’s not, they say, because he spent a career in Washington pushing for mandatory minimum sentencing and other changes to drug laws. It’s definitely not, according to people who have discussed the policy with him, because he’s a teetotaler whose father battled alcoholism and whose son has fought addiction, and who’s had gateway-drug anxieties drilled into him.

With legalization seeming such an obvious political win, all that’s stopping Biden, current and former aides say, is public health. He’s read the studies, or at least, summaries of the studies (campaign aides pointed me to this one). He wants to see more. He’s looking for something definitive to assure him that legalizing won’t lead to serious mental or physical problems, in teens or adults.

America appears to be moving on without him, and so are the future leaders of his party.

If Biden really has his eyes on public health, he should think about how many Black people end up in jail for marijuana sale and possession, argues Jackson, Mississippi, Mayor Chokwe Lumumba—a young Black progressive who oversaw local decriminalization in his city in 2018. Biden should also think about how an illicit, unregulated market is leading to the drug being laced with other chemicals, and the health effects of that, Lumumba told me. If Biden thinks marijuana is addictive, he said, then he should explain what makes it worse than alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. Legalization is a necessary part of criminal-justice reform, Lumumba said. “I would encourage him and his campaign more broadly to do more research on some of the finer points,” he added.

Alternatively, John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, says Biden should think about how legalization could raise tax revenue in the post-pandemic economy of state budget deficits. “What better time than now to have that conversation?” Fetterman told me. Before the coronavirus outbreak, Fetterman spent a year traveling his state, including areas that mostly voted for Trump in 2016, proselytizing “commonsense” legalization. There’s even more reason to agree with him now, he said. “It’s the ultimate policy and financial low-hanging fruit,” he said. “If you’re not moved by the gross racial disparities, what state doesn’t need a couple hundred million more in revenue at this point?”

[Read: America’s invisible pot addicts]

Amid the criticism that Biden hasn’t taken a definitive stance on legalization, it’s easy to lose track of how far ahead he is of any other major-party presidential nominee in history in terms of changing marijuana policy. He’d decriminalize use, which would mean fines instead of jail time, and move to expunge records for using. He’d remove federal enforcement in states that have legalized the drug. That’s further, by far, than Donald Trump, or Barack Obama, has gone. Biden would move marijuana off as a Schedule 1 narcotic, the same category as heroin, but would not take it off the illegal-drugs schedule entirely, so that federal law would treat it the way it does alcohol or nicotine.

John Morgan, a Florida Biden donor and a major proponent of legalization in his state, is a proud user of marijuana, and told me he knows many Democrats and Republicans who are too. He’s been able to get Ron DeSantis, his state’s Republican governor and a big Trump ally, on board with legalization. Morgan said that when he broached the issue briefly with Biden last year ahead of hosting a fundraiser for him, the candidate responded, “‘I know where you are on this.’ I just took it to be as You know where I am on this.”

Erik Altieri, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a pro-legalization lobbying group, told me that although his organization heard from several of the other leading Democratic presidential campaigns last year, it never got a call from the Biden team.

Biden’s resistance is particularly frustrating for those who remember how he was a pioneer in standing up for legalizing same-sex marriage, the biggest recent issue on which laws suddenly flipped to catch up to changing views. Maybe, one person who’s spoken with Biden theorized, the difference is that he knew gay people, but believes—almost certainly falsely—that he doesn’t know people who regularly use marijuana.

That’s a bad guess too, Biden aides told me.

“As science ends up with more conclusive evidence regarding the impact of marijuana, I think he would look at that data. But he’s being asked to make a decision right now. This is where the science guides him,” Stef Feldman, Biden’s policy director, explained to me. “When he looked to put down his position on marijuana in writing for the purposes of the campaign, he asked for an update on where science was today. He didn’t ask for an update on what views and science said 20 years ago. He wanted to know what was the best information we know now. And that is what he made his decision on.”

[Read: What Americans don’t know about Joe Biden]

This can seem both perfectly reasonable and a ridiculous excuse. There isn’t some conclusive study about health effects that Biden is ignoring, but one is also not likely to emerge anytime soon. And though they insist this is all about health, other ripples from legalization are on the minds of institutionalists like Biden and his close advisers: trade deals that require both sides to keep marijuana illegal would have to be rewritten, half a century of American pressure on other countries about their drug policies would be reversed, and hard-line police unions would have to be convinced that he wasn’t just giving in to stoners.

Realistically, marijuana isn’t a priority right now for the campaign. Legalization is at once too small an issue for Biden’s tiny team to focus on and too large an issue to take a stand on without fuller vetting. And it comes with a frustration among people close to Biden, who point out that liberals talk about trusting science on everything from climate change to wearing masks—and, notably, wanted vaping restricted because the health effects were unclear—but are willing to let that standard slide here because they want marijuana to be legal.

Biden’s compromise: going right to the edge of legalization, while appointing a criminal-justice task force for his campaign whose members have each supported at least some approach to legalization. But that sort of signaling doesn’t get people to the polls. “Being cute is fine. Being bold is motivating,” Ben Wessel, the director of NextGen America, a group focused on boosting political involvement among younger voters, told me.

“If Biden said he wants to legalize marijuana tomorrow, it would help him get reluctant young voters off the fence and come home to vote for Biden—especially Bernie [Sanders] supporters, especially young people of color who have been screwed by a criminal-justice system that treats them unfairly on marijuana issues,” Wessel told me. Publicly supporting marijuana legalization would be an easy, attention-grabbing move, and might help many Sanders diehards get past the fact that he’s not where they want him to be on the rest of their candidate’s democratic-socialist agenda.

Altieri, the pro-marijuana lobbyist, said coming up with a legalization policy wouldn’t take much work: Sanders had one, as did Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Andrew Yang. Or Biden could check in with Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who wrote a legalization bill based on the argument that legalization is essential to the criminal-justice-reform conversation. Altieri is not impressed with how little Biden has moved so far. “Where he’s at now would have been maybe a bold stance in 1988. It’s not much of one in 2020,” he told me.

In 2018, top Democrats credited a legalization ballot initiative in Michigan with boosting turnout and producing the biggest blue wave in the country—winning races for governor, Senate, attorney general, and secretary of state, along with flipping two congressional seats and multiple state-legislature seats. A ballot initiative is expected for the fall in Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota, and possibly Montana. Anyone who believes—hopefully, or out of cynical political calculation—that Biden will announce some big change in his thinking, aides told me, will be disappointed.

Just do it, Fetterman said: Do it, if only to secure Pennsylvania’s electoral votes and get that much closer to the White House. “If Joe Biden’s account tweeted out ‘Legal. Weed.,’ it would get a million likes in the first two hours. I guarantee it. And no one’s going to accuse Uncle Joe of being a pothead,” Fetterman told me. “If you think weed is the devil’s tobacco, you ain’t voting for Biden anyway.”

Police are seeking a couple captured on video who tried to paint over a massive Black Lives Mural that had been painted less than an hour earlier on a street in Martinez, California.

“We’re sick of this narrative. That’s what’s wrong,” said the man, responding to onlookers. “The narrative of police brutality. The narrative of oppression. The narrative of racism. It’s a lie. There is no oppression. There is no racism. It’s a leftist lie. It’s a lie from the media, the liberal left.”

“This is racism. You are the idiot in this situation,” said an onlooker.

“Keep this sh*t in f**king New York. This doesn’t happen in my town,” screeched the woman as she struggled to cover the letters with a paint roller.

“Don’t you have something better to do, Becky?” said an onlooker.

“F**king Keep America Great Again that’s right,” said the man, responding to onlookers. “Why don’t you guys learn about history. The emancipation proclamation act. Yeah, that’s right, Abraham Lincoln. You’re only free because of our forefathers.”

At some point, the couple left to get more paint. they never returned.

Wrote the Martinez Police Department in a statement: “On July 4 , community members obtained a permit from the City to paint Black Lives Matter on Court Street in downtown Martinez. Once the mural was completed, an unidentified white male and white female arrived. While the male made comments to a group of onlookers his companion began painting over the mural with black paint. At one point she made a statement that this was not, ‘…happening in my town.’ She also asked the male to get her another can of paint to continue with the act of vandalism. It appeared that the couple came to the mural with cans of paint and a roller with the specific purpose of vandalizing over the mural.”

Added the MPD: “The community spent a considerable amount of time painting this mural only to have the suspects destroy it by dumping and rolling paint over part of the message. MPD was notified and by the time we arrived the suspects were gone. A witness provided a photograph of the suspect’s vehicle which was described as a Nissan pickup truck with the word “NICOLE” on the right side of the tailgate in silver lettering. The truck has a camper shell and the license plate is 52701B1. The case is currently under investigation and if any members of the public can identify the male and female involved in this incident please call our Dispatch Center at 925-372-3440 with the information.”

“The community spent a considerable amount of time putting the mural together only to have it painted over in a hateful and senseless manner,” the MPD concluded. “The City of Martinez values tolerance and the damage to the mural was divisive and hurtful. Please help us identify those that are responsible for this crime, so they can be held accountable for their actions.”

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Contra Costa County courthouse in Martinez, California.

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Nick Cordero, the Broadway actor who starred in Bullets Over Broadway, Waitress, A Bronx Tale, and Rock of Ages, whose months-long battle with COVID-19 was chronicled by his wife, former Broadway dancer Amanda Kloots, has died at 41.

The Hollywood Reporter: “Since being diagnosed with what was thought to be pneumonia in late March, the Canadian actor spent weeks in intensive care at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, had his right leg amputated, lost more than 60 pounds and was hoping to receive a double-lung transplant.”

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family.

Wrote Kloots on Sunday: “God has another angel in heaven now. My darling husband passed away this morning. He was surrounded in love by his family, singing and praying as he gently left this earth. ⠀ I am in disbelief and hurting everywhere. My heart is broken as I cannot imagine our lives without him. Nick was such a bright light. He was everyone’s friend, loved to listen, help and especially talk. He was an incredible actor and musician. He loved his family and loved being a father and husband. Elvis and I will miss him in everything we do, everyday.”

View this post on Instagram

God has another angel in heaven now. My darling husband passed away this morning. He was surrounded in love by his family, singing and praying as he gently left this earth. ⠀ I am in disbelief and hurting everywhere. My heart is broken as I cannot imagine our lives without him. Nick was such a bright light. He was everyone’s friend, loved to listen, help and especially talk. He was an incredible actor and musician. He loved his family and loved being a father and husband. Elvis and I will miss him in everything we do, everyday. ⠀ To Nicks extraordinary doctor, Dr. David Ng, you were my positive doctor! There are not many doctors like you. Kind, smart, compassionate, assertive and always eager to listen to my crazy ideas or call yet another doctor for me for a second opinion. You’re a diamond in the rough. ⠀ ⠀ I cannot begin to thank everyone enough for the outpour of love , support and help we’ve received these last 95 days. You have no idea how much you lifted my spirits at 3pm everyday as the world sang Nicks song, Live Your Life. We sang it to him today, holding his hands. As I sang the last line to him, “they’ll give you hell but don’t you light them kill your light not without a fight. Live your life,” I smiled because he definitely put up a fight. I will love you forever and always my sweet man.

A post shared by AK! (@amandakloots) on Jul 5, 2020 at 6:05pm PDT

The post Nick Cordero, Broadway Actor Whose Public COVID-19 Battle Lasted Months, Dies at 41 appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

A fifteen-year-old cartoon is an unlikely contender for most-watched show in America. And yet when "Avatar: The Last Airbender" arrived on Netflix, in May, it rose through the ranks to become the platform's No. 1 offering, and even now it remains a fixture in the Top Ten for the U.S. From a report: The series first ran from 2005 to 2008 on Nickelodeon, and swiftly made a name for itself as a politically resonant, emotionally sophisticated work -- one with a sprawling but meticulously plotted mythos that destined the show for cult-classic status. Last summer, after "Game of Thrones" flubbed its finale, fans and critics held up "Avatar" as a counterexample: a fantasy series that knew what it wanted to be from the beginning. Like all such stories, "Avatar" (created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, and no relation to the James Cameron blockbuster) demands some exposition. In a world where nations are defined by their connection to one of the four elements -- water, earth, fire, and air -- maintaining the peace falls to the Avatar, the only person who can achieve mastery of them all. Just as the Fire Nation launches an attack, he vanishes. The series begins a century later, when a twelve-year-old boy named Aang is discovered and revived by a pair of Water Tribe teen-agers -- and the Fire Nation is well on its way to global conquest. The first two episodes are largely what you'd expect: world-building punctuated by moments of whimsy. In the third, Aang returns to the temple where he was born to find the aftermath of a genocide. He is, he discovers, both the Avatar and the last of the Air Nomads. Where earlier shows might have hinted at such an atrocity for adult viewers' benefit, "Avatar" is overt, taking seriously its young audience's capacity to confront the consequences of endless war. Moral ambiguity abounds, and people from all nations see the conflict as, variously, an opportunity or a tragedy; there are Earth Kingdom citizens who have become cynical or apathetic after generations of fighting, and those from the Fire Nation who are fully capable of doing good. Aang, like the monks who raised him, is a pacifist at heart, but the series makes it clear that his is not the only way of bringing balance to the world. On the eve of his confrontation with the Fire Lord, one of his past lives -- a warrior named Kyoshi, who has killed would-be conquerors before -- counsels that "only justice will bring peace."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Donald Trump’s collapsing poll numbers have Democrats thinking bigger than just winning the White House and seizing the Senate — they’re imagining a rout that extends all the way down the ballot.

Intent on not repeating the mistakes of 2010 under then-President Barack Obama, the party is seizing on a once-in-a-decade opportunity to drive the redistricting process — and reverse the built-in advantage Republicans amassed over House district lines after the last census.

From Pennsylvania to Texas to Minnesota, cash-flush Democrats are working to win back legislative chambers needed to take control of drawing congressional maps — or at least guarantee a seat at the table. If they succeed, it would correct an Obama-era down-ballot shellacking that handed Republicans House control and resulted in the loss of more than 900 Democratic legislative seats.

The devastating results for Democrats in 2010 — part of a multi-million dollar effort by Republicans and Karl Rove to zero in on winning governor’s offices and battleground statehouses — gave the GOP total control in 19 states and allowed them to draw 213 congressional districts.

The new maps were a disaster for Democrats and spawned a bevy of groups and fundraising efforts intent on preventing a repeat in 2020. Most notably, Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder created the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a centralized redistricting hub on the Democratic side “to make sure that what the Republicans did last time was not possible again,” said John Bisognano, the NDRC’s executive director. “We weren’t going to get caught off guard again.”

But the opportunity in November is even more profound, Democrats say. It represents not only a once-every-20-years occurrence when reapportionment falls in a presidential year, but perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity when an incumbent president appears so weak.

Joe Biden has long said he thinks it’s part of the job as the presumptive nominee to bolster down-ballot races. His campaign is coordinating with local campaigns in battleground states, where building out infrastructure and organization can help drive Democratic control at lower levels of government.

If Trump’s dismal polling extends into the fall, Democrats say it's even more likely Biden’s campaign will contest territory once unfriendly to the party.

“We are a campaign aggressively looking to expand the map as we move forward,” said senior adviser Anita Dunn. Naming Texas and Georgia as “expansion targets,” she added, “Right now, we’re not ruling anything out.”

Simon Rosenberg, who worked as a senior consultant for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2018, when the party swamped Republicans en route to the House majority, said the environment is just as ripe this year.

“The rationale for going big is clear: it can help flip the Senate, create a more powerful mandate for governing, and lock in wins for the coming reapportionment,” he said. “From a governing and party perspective, there will be a powerful case for going big, and trying to get to 400-plus Electoral College votes.”

Republicans say Democrats should curb their enthusiasm. The GOP is pursuing its own state legislative fundraising efforts to stave off Democrats. In Texas, Rove has returned to serve as treasurer of Leading Texas Forward PAC, aimed at maintaining a Republican state House. They also paint Democrats as hypocritical, saying the party complained about gerrymandering by Republicans only to take part in it themselves in blue states, like Illinois.

Former Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker, the financial chair of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, dismissed talk of a Democratic rout.

"They were making similar predictions in 2016 while Hillary Clinton ignored Wisconsin after our primary and tried to run up the score in other states," he said.

Adam Kincaid, the group's executive director and a veteran of the GOP's 2010 redistricting efforts, said it won’t be easy for Democrats to flip legislative chambers in states where they came up short four years ago. “If the Biden campaign is talking about winning in Texas and Arizona and Georgia," he said, "they need to go back and read the clips from four years ago."

Some Republicans, however, acknowledge the party faces a genuine threat in longtime conservative bastions like Texas.

“The switch was flipped on in the November 2018 midterm elections. It was, 'Oh boy, this is real, we better get our act together,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican strategist in Texas. “But I’m also not sure the party has figured it out.”

Democrats are far more cognizant of the opportunity and risk of redistricting than they were in 2010. National Democratic groups, including the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Governors Association, have separate efforts to help Democrats compete in down-ballot races.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the campaign arm for statehouse Democrats, is on track to raise and spend about five times more than it did during the last redistricting cycle.

“Democratic donors across the country really understand the significance of legislative races across the country,” said DLCC President Jessica Post, who was a junior staffer there during the Republican wave in 2010.

National groups are eyeing Texas not only because Biden is polling close to Trump, but because Democrats need to gain control of at least one chamber of the state legislature to have a say in the state’s congressional map.

Texas stands to gain a handful of new congressional seats after the Census. In 2018, Democrats flipped two state Senate seats and 12 in the state House. The nine state House seats Democrats are eyeing to flip the chamber were all carried by former Rep. Beto O’Rourke when he ran for Senate two years ago.

In an interview, O’Rourke said years of litigation over the state’s maps — and claims those maps have diluted the power of voters of color — are motivating Democratic voters.

“Folks are talking about this and they get that if we have a Democratic majority, not only can we help decide what those new congressional districts look like, we can help to redraw existing state House, state Senate, U.S. Congress districts to include instead of exclude Black and brown voters in this state,” O’Rourke said.

O’Rourke is among the higher-profile Democrats working to direct resources and attention to obscure statehouse races in states like Texas and North Carolina.

So, too, is Virginia State Delegate Danica Roem, who in 2017 was the first openly transgender person to be elected to a U.S. statehouse. Roem said she’s held Zoom calls to help raise money for candidates or state parties in places like North Carolina and Texas.

In some areas, Democrats don’t need to win outright to advance their cause. In Kansas, they’re aiming to break the GOP’s statehouse supermajority so Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly can wield her veto power over congressional maps. To do that, they need to flip one seat in the state House and two in the state Senate.

Democrats are zeroing in on races in states with independent redistricting commissions that have come under fire from Republicans. They include Michigan, where Republican lawmakers have tried to take control of funding for the redistricting commission, and Arizona, where legislators have tried to split a legislative district that is the only majority Native American one in the state.

North Carolina is important for another reason. Despite having a Democratic governor, state rules prevent him from vetoing maps crafted by the majority GOP legislature.

Several factors make Democrats believe this time will be different. They’ve already made important strides to thwart Republican map-making in 2021, including winning the governorships in Wisconsin and Michigan and reelecting Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. They also forced the redrawing of some old maps that put them in better position in places like North Carolina, and are encouraged by recent turnout in primaries in Wisconsin and Georgia during the coronavirus pandemic.

At the same time, with so much attention focused on the presidential election and control of the Senate, many Democrats still worry that down-ballot races will get short shrift.

“The question is … given the extraordinary and appropriate emphasis on the presidential race and the extraordinary emphasis on winning back the Senate, are we going to miss the third leg of this stool, which is losing control of the states and having this extreme congressional and legislative gerrymandering for another decade,” asked Tom Steyer, the billionaire climate activist who ran for president and has spent hundreds of millions to elect Democrats.

Steyer said he’s encouraged by the grass-roots activity on the ground. Yet taken together, he’s still concerned about the broader “Republican playbook” — which he said includes redistricting, voter suppression and preventing vote-by mail expansion — if Democrats don’t remain vigilant.

Dave Abrams, deputy executive director of the Republican State Leadership Committee, predicted that Democrats are “going to fail again" at the state level despite their renewed efforts. He said voters would "definitively reject the liberals’ new radical agenda that dismantles our nation and replaces it with a lawless society.”

But Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Chris Turner, who lost his state seat to remapping in 2010 and was later reelected, said that recent polls showing Trump and Biden virtually tied in Texas suggests the president is slipping in the suburbs. That alone, he said, is plenty of incentive for national Democrats to play in the Lone Star state.

“We’re very bullish about 2020,” he said, pointing to the party's gains in Texas in the 2018 midterms. “It’s a complete train wreck of an environment for the Republican Party right now.”

As the nation continues to face the novel coronavirus pandemic and states march forward in a wide-ranging variety of reopening plans, colleges and universities are in a unique and challenging position. Will higher education resume normal reopening plans, and if so, at what cost? There are few answers, even just months out from when classes tend to begin. At the University of Washington, however, some news from students who are members of a fraternity: At least 112 students living at fraternity houses have tested positive for COVID-19, as reported by NPR. Nine more students tested positive but do not live in the fraternity houses, though they were reportedly close contacts of the students. 

As some background, “Greek” houses (meaning houses that house members of fraternities or sororities) are generally located off-campus, but nearby, and adhere to guidelines from their respective organizations. But they’re not on-campus dorms. In the University of Washington’s case, its row of Greek housing reportedly consists of about 25 houses that house up to 1,000 students, located near its Seattle campus.

In a statement, chair of the UW Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases, Dr. Geoffrey Gottlieb said that while most of the Greek row houses “had previously taken measures to reduce resident capacity by up to 50% this summer,” it’s not enough “without vigilant, daily preventive measures, such as wearing face coverings, physical distancing and hand hygiene.”

Of course, this scenario isn’t a concern for only the University of Washington. As noted by BuzzFeed News, for example, coronavirus cases have been linked to fraternity parties in Oxford, Mississippi,(home of the University of Mississippi) as well.

Will higher education go all virtual? What about students who live in the residence halls? What about majors that require lab or other in-person work? Higher education in this country is also a business, so many people are also considering cost; will schools still charge top dollar tuition if classes are remote? Is learning at home safe for all students, considering some may be homeless or in unstable housing? Big questions that each school (or school system) is grappling with largely without significant guidance. 

Many college professors have real concerns about exposure to the virus; even if classes are taught at half-capacity, for example, or students are required to wear masks, instructors and other administrators may be exposed to large numbers of people on a regular basis. In addition, classes tend to be held indoors, and classroom sizes range from lectures to quite small spaces.

In terms of labor rights, the virus poses an additional risk for faculty who may be in high-risk groups; instructors may live with a chronic illness, for example, that makes them more cautious of the virus, and they shouldn’t have to risk losing employment by not wanting to teach in-person during a pandemic. This issue can feel particularly important for adjuncts, or hourly workers who don’t necessarily receive even health insurance. Custodians and food service workers—essential to college campus life as we know it—can also be particularly vulnerable. 

Students, on the other hand, may feel frustrated if they’re still charged already steep tuition fees for classes that are virtual—especially if the faculty isn’t used to teaching online. Some classes may be pass/fail instead of a letter grade; some may be difficult because of time zones; some may be inaccessible for students without a reliable internet connection, especially as public spaces, like libraries, are limited because of the pandemic. 

Of course, as the Trump administration continues to fumble pandemic response, it’s not only colleges facing cluster concerns; clusters have already been linked to churches, for example, bars, and even pool parties. 

There is clearly no number of deaths that will make Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and their associated toadies take the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic seriously. On CBS' Face The Nation, host Margaret Brennan started off by informing viewers that (despite soaring new caseloads), the Trump administration has been blocking interview requests with key government exports for three months.

"We have not been able to get our requests for Dr. Fauci approved by the Trump administration in the last three months. And the CDC not at all," reported Brennan.

The reason for that is self-evident; early on in the pandemic, the Trump White House began restricting interviews with government experts after Trump reportedly became enraged by those experts contradicting his own false claims and delusions. Pence's pandemic "task force" was the mechanism by which a more Trump-friendly narrative would be enforced; after Trump again got bored and began insisting it was time to "reopen" public spaces and pretend the virus had gone away, the task force itself disappeared into the White House woodwork. So here we are.

That is not to say Team Trump has entirely nixed interviews with government figures. It has instead bent them away from the Centers of Disease Control and government experts who have irritated Trump, preferring instead to send out economic catastrophes like Peter Navarro to opine about the relative cost-benefit ratios of keeping Americans alive versus killing off some percentage of them to grease the nation's economic gears. Today's Top Expert was Food and Drug Administration head Stephen Hahn, who may not be a pandemic expert but is more skilled than others at not pushing too many pins into Trump's delusions.

His primary job was to say as little as possible, as plausibly as possible.

On Trump's claim that a COVID-19 vaccine might be available "long before the end of the year," a physical near-impossibility even with a competent administration but the latest in Trump's many, many declarations that everything will be fine Real Soon Now without Donald having to lift a finger, Hahn would only allow that "I can't predict when a vaccine will be available."

On Trump's insistence that "99%" of COVID-19 cases are "totally harmless", a nonsensical and delusional statement even if you do not count the severe lung scarring and other long-term effects that appear to be associated with the disease, Hahn would only blow smoke: "You know, any case, we don't want to have in this country, [meaningless phrase one], [meaningless phrase two]" he filibustered.

When blowing smoke didn't work on a host, he straight-up refused the question. "I'm not going to get into who is right and who is wrong," he told CNN host Dana Bash.

Buddy, you're the top "food and drug" guy in the country. I know pandemics aren't your thing, but deciding "who is right and who is wrong" would seem to be the key task of your own government department. If a meat company started marketing salmonella as a seasoning, it might be time to decide who was right and who was wrong. If a company declared that their new pills could protect you from asteroid strikes, somebody would weigh in.

Or not. At this point it depends on how much the salmonella lobby is willing to pay.

To her credit, Bash called his cowardly ass out in no uncertain terms. Made him look like a right proper jackass. A hack. A toady. A bootlicker. A clown.

Which is exactly why he's on television, and government experts are not. Because Dr. Stephen Hahn's top priority remains pleasing his idiot boss, and if the choice is between warning Trump-loving Americans that the plain worldwide facts about the disease make it far more serious than Donald Trump claims and ducking under a desk for a question or two, he's going to pick the second.

Everybody knows Trump is lying, and his own top officials certainly do. But Trump and Pence have relentlessly purged anyone who ever shown any concern over that, and a little thing like 130,000 American deaths, or even 250,000 American deaths, won't make any of the remainders change course now.

Across the country, as the novel coronavirus continues to spread, officials urged Americans to be mindful of their July 4 plans. A number of community displays were canceled out of fears of worsening the current outbreak that has seen an 89 percent increase in new cases within the last two weeks in the U.S., The New York Times reported.

But while Americans participated in “scaled-back” Independence Day celebrations the country still recorded an increase in coronavirus cases for the 26th day in a row. According to The Washington Post, data found that the seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases as of Saturday was 48,361 an increase of 11,740 from last week. Of the 36 states whose new cases have gone up this week compared to the previous one, nine of them have increased by over 50 percent. Both Florida and Texas reported their highest surge in cases within 24 hours Saturday, according to state health department records.

In Florida, the pandemic has infected more than 190,000 people; based on seven-day average new cases in the state have increased by 67 percent. Texas has reached approximately 192,000 reported cases, state hospitals are at or reaching full capacity as the number of hospitalizations needed increase, CNBC reported. 

Both states have passed the five percent safety threshold that the World Health Organization recommends as a safe level to reopen businesses. But despite reports that 14.1 percent of those tested for the virus in Florida Saturday tested positive, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis refuses to close businesses again in addition to issuing a statewide order on requiring masks. DeSantis did however announce that the state’s plan to reopen will be reconsidered. Florida was one of the last states to implement a stay-at-home order on April 3; cases in the state make up about 20 percent of new cases reported in the U.S. While DeSantis refused to issue a statewide order, many counties have mandated residents wear masks and face coverings when in public.

Texas’s governor, on the other hand, seems to finally be acknowledging the state’s increase in cases. While many countries refuse to follow the order, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Thursday requiring residents in counties that have 20 or more COVID-19 cases to wear face coverings in public, and penalties for violating the order include a fine of $250. Abbott also issued a statewide order for restaurants to reduce their seating capacity and bars to be closed. Texas was one of the first states to lift its stay-at-home and lockdown restrictions; most businesses reopened in May.

Despite the increase of cases nationwide, Donald Trump claimed Saturday that his administration has made “a lot of progress” in slowing down the virus’s spread. “Our strategy is moving along well,” Trump said. “It goes out in one area and rears back its ugly face in another area. But we have learned a lot.” Trump continues to blame increased testing for the surge in cases, failing to realize that cases would still be present even if a positive was not reported. “When the virus is under control, testing doesn’t uncover more cases. It’s a tool for keeping the epidemic at bay,” former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb tweeted.

According to data compiled from John Hopkins University, the U.S. has reported more than 2.7 million coronavirus infections and at least 129,509 deaths as a result of COVID-19. As of Friday, the country has reported its third day of more than 50,000 new cases. Experts and officials continue to urge the public to wear facial coverings, practice social distancing, and avoid large gatherings in order to prevent further spread of the virus.

White House health advisor Anthony Fauci warned Americans last Tuesday that the number of new cases reported could double to more than 100,000 a day. “I can’t make an accurate prediction but it’s going to be very disturbing,” Fauci said in a hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. “We are now having 40-plus-thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around, and so I am very concerned.”

Though it is a holiday weekend, the Sunday news shows continued on in mostly the usual fashion. Trump ally Sen. Joni Ernst, one of the corrupt man-child's most ardent defenders as the Republican Senate nullified impeachment charges against Trump without investigation, once had a lot to day about two (2) Americans dying of Ebola under President Barack Obama, saying it showed "failed leadership." CNN host Dana Bash asked Ernst whether 130,000 Americans dying in the (now fully out-of-control) COVID-19 pandemic also is showing "failed leadership."

Sen. Joni Ernst replied with yet another response seemingly hand-tailored to show just how corrupt, incompetent, and buffoonish the Republican Party has become. After a long filibuster resulting in Bash repeating of the question: "No, I think that the president is stepping forward," she clowned.

Lord, now that was just pathetic. I’m embarrassed for both of them.

Again, the whole premise of so-called "news" programs is invalidated if political leaders are simply allowed to bullshit their way through each with no repercussions. Bash's question was spot-on, probing whether a sitting senator's supposed outrage at one pandemic would translate to the next. Clearly, it did not.

What, then, should the repercussions be for being so transparently a hack? Should a buzzer sound? Should a duck drop from the ceiling? During the pandemic itself physical solutions are largely out of bounds, as most of the people praising Donald Trump's brilliant handling of a pandemic now expected by the White House to result in at least a quarter million dead are praising him from inside their own homes because it is simply too unsafe to travel to the studios as usual. That means the best solution is, for now, right out; nobody is going to agree to have a pie-throwing machine installed in their den.

Hecklers, then. I'm going to propose the "news" shows liven up their broadcasts with professional hecklers. If any politician says something as egregiously tawdry as Joni Ernst says regularly, ninety seconds of interview time will be given to a team of hecklers to point it out and roast their target into oblivion.

Hey, it's more news than what's currently being broadcast. If the nation's top political reporters are incapable of bringing shame to those that quite transparently deserve it, we need to bring in people with more appropriate skills.

“Fire Island” trended on Twitter Sunday after photos of packed parties at the gay New York resort destination of Fire Island Pines went viral. Multiple videos spread across social media of gay men partying with nary a mask in sight and little to no social distancing.

Many of the videos, which have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times as of this post, were shared to Twitter by journalist Chris Weidner (tweet thread below).

Even some familiar "Rona Rave" Meth Gala faces are in attendance.

— Chris Weidner (@CWNewser) July 4, 2020

More video coming in from Fire Island Pines, showing large crowds, close quarters, no masks and no fu*%s given while confirmed Covid-19 positive people are in attendance. #July4th #IndependanceDay #COVID @DCHomos @MajorPhilebrity @evanrosskatz @yashar @emmavpm @DanaKennedyLive pic.twitter.com/4aFCoSQ6Ls

— Chris Weidner (@CWNewser) July 5, 2020

One partier by the name of Corey Hannon, who decided he was done with COVID-19 on June 30 according to Facebook posts, recorded a video message to others who had called him out for going to Fire Island to party.

IT’S STRAIGHT PEOPLE TOO: Packed Michigan 4th of July Beach Party Goes Viral Amid COVID Resurgence: WATCH

Said Hannon in the clip (below): “You know what, I did have COVID. Everyone knows I had COVID, and you know what I did? I sat in my f**king bedroom and quarantined myself for eight f**king days. And suffered through COVID. And now I’m out celebrating. So go f**k yourselves. I hope all of you get f**king COVID, you nasty nasty trolls.”

Corey Hannon, who admits he has Covid-19 & is partying ar Fire Island Pines, posted a now deleted video after being called out on social media for being irresponsible.@evanrosskatz @MajorPhilebrity @tyleroakley @yashar @PinkNews @Queerty @tlrd @nypost @DanaKennedyLive #COVIDIOT pic.twitter.com/4nDuDRH819

— Chris Weidner (@CWNewser) July 5, 2020

Another party attendee, identified as Giancarlo Albanese, posted a photo of a packed gathering and wrote: “F**k Your mask. F**k your social distancing. F**k your vaccine. F**k your eugenics. Kiss my a**hole if you think Im an ass”

View this post on Instagram

Fuck Your mask. Fuck your social distancing. Fuck your vaccine. Fuck your eugenics. Kiss my asshole if you think Im an ass #fireisland #summer #nyc #newyork #fireislandpines #party #beachlife #beachparty #ocean #moonlight #rave #covid9 #coronavirus

A post shared by GC (@scholargc_) on Jul 5, 2020 at 12:17am PDT

UPDATE: This one's name is Giancarlo Kristian Albanese, currency analyst at EverythingFx (https://t.co/H4Z8ASPm9y). He will be returning from Fire Island Pines, to White Plains, NY. pic.twitter.com/WiVqHipKEf

— Chris Weidner (@CWNewser) July 5, 2020

Sis is homeless now because he thought it would be cute to party in Fire Island in the middle of a pandemic and put his parents at risk pic.twitter.com/Yfj4u3jm0M

— Serena Daniari (@serenajazmine) July 5, 2020

Vinny Vega, a NY promoter and COVID survivor, was one of many who called out the partiers.

Wrote Vega, in part: “Is this really what our world is facing? A bunch of entitled gay men who can’t take one season off of partying to save the collective lives of the human race? So many people are flat out refusing to adjust to the “new normal.”Guess what…everyone in this photo, and anyone at this event (especially the horde’s of individual’s not even being considerate enough to be gathering in large social settings with masks & making sure that sufficient distancing is being implemented)…2020 has been a hard year for the ENTIRE F*CKING PLANET . If we do not all do our part, be compassionate, considerate, and responsible…we are all going to be doomed to the current fate unfolding in the TRUMP-centric states. Delusional, sociopathic mindsets in our current sociopolitical climate are resulting in spiking numbers of Covid-19 cases/deaths. THIS IS NOT A JOKE: THIS IS SERIOUS. CARE MORE.This is just my opinion, and this is my Facebook profile, so I’m going to state it. The Fire Island 2020 season should be flat out cancelled. These island goers cannot be trusted to social distance, and THEY WILL end up resulting in asymptomatic individuals bringing the virus into the masses of NYC and other places…and a second wave will occur.”

Vega’s full post:

A few more enraged reactions to the Fire Island clips:

Hey @NYGovCuomo how about informing Fire Island that all these people need 2 stay there in quarantine for 14 days b4 they can come back 2 the city due 2 their carelessness. #fireisland https://t.co/kSqknvE8kT

— Lucy Ortiz (@HerLaptop112) July 5, 2020

we’re gonna be in quarantine forever because you expired milk ass f words can’t not wear your ~brand new speedo~ to fire island for one goddamn year pic.twitter.com/b5ktvC0LQq

— Hitmonvers (@MilkmanNick) July 5, 2020

American Horror Story: Fire Island

— Paul (@paulludwig) July 5, 2020

If you went to Fire Island this weekend do us all in NYC/Long Island a favor and extend your Fire Island stay for an extra two weeks. Stay where you are. Parties are fun, but this shit was fucking stupid. Quarantine your ass like our lives depend on it.

— Adam Antium (@YouDontNoeyMe) July 5, 2020

So, it would be AMAZING if all of you who are in Fire Island to keep your asses there for the next 14-21 days, get a COVID test and after you get results exit quarantine like a responsible citizen. You are responsible for your actions. Stay where you are.

— Adam Antium (@YouDontNoeyMe) July 5, 2020

it’s sending me into a fucking rage seeing videos of all the gays at fire island who decided the pandemic is over because they couldn’t wait a year to wear their tacky speedos and do ghb. if any of you were there please block me, you’re an embarrassment

— stephen (@stephenossola) July 5, 2020

You’d think we gay men would have learned from the last pandemic that brought our community to its knees (HIV) and that we’re still reeling from. We criticize Trumpists for denying science and then turn around and do this. Embarrassing.

— Guillermo Mena (@GuilloMena) July 5, 2020

The post ‘Fire Island’ Trends After Videos of Packed Parties, Defiant COVID Carriers at NYC-Area Gay Resort Go Viral: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

destinyland writes: Amber Lynn Gilles walked into a Starbucks without a mask, later complaining on Facebook about the server who'd asked her to wear one. ("Next time I will wait for cops and bring a medical exemption!") She says she's surprised by the attention "my little review" attracted. A GoFundMe campaign supporting the Starbucks barista who had to deal with her has now raised $105,450. So she now says she wants at least half of that money, "because they're using me to get it." She complained to the New York Times that "They're using my name, they're using my face, and they're slandering me." Meanwhile Lenin Gutierrez, the Starbucks barista, is meeting with a financial adviser to discuss the generous donations he's received from all around the world. Though he's still working at Starbucks, with these donations, he tells a local newscast, he'll now be able to go to college and pursue a degree in kinesiology (the scientific study of human movement). But he also plans to donate some of the money to charity. "I can't be grateful enough," he adds, saying he hopes to show back some of the kindness that people have shown to him. The GoFundMe page supporting him adds, "Thank you CNN and Chris Cuomo for closing out Cuomo Prime Time with Lenin's story and the GoFundMe." And the page also calls attention to what it sees as the larger theme in this incident. "In the words of Chris Cuomo: 'This is not about your freedom. Your freedom to wear, or not wear a mask, ends where it encroaches on somebody else's freedom not to get sick from you. Surrender the me to the we.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Florida reported another record-breaking spike in coronavirus cases on Saturday, with 11,458 people confirmed to have been infected with the virus as cases surge nationwide over the July 4 holiday weekend.

Florida’s daily case record Saturday, which comes after a week of record-breaking spikes in the Sunshine State and across the Sun Belt, is second only to New York state’s one-day record of 11,571 new positive tests in mid-April.

Texas also hit a daily new case record Saturday with 8,258 new cases, according to its health department.

More than 2.8 million people in the U.S. have had confirmed coronavirus infections since the pandemic began in January, and nearly 130,000 people have died. The U.S., which leads the world in coronavirus infections, recorded a single-day record in new cases on Friday.

Health experts fear coronavirus cases will continue to climb after the July 4 weekend. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said earlier this week he would "not be surprised" if the U.S. eventually began to see 100,000 new cases per day.

Governors in other coronavirus hotspots, like California and Texas, scrambled to reimpose restrictions on bars and indoor restaurant seating ahead of the holiday weekend. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who had long opposed a statewide mask mandate, ordered people in Texas to wear masks in most public places on Thursday.

Popular beaches closed in California and Florida on Saturday as health officials urged Americans to avoid gathering at July 4 parties and fireworks displays.

In Arizona, which is seeing a surge in new coronavirus cases, health officials reported Friday that 90 percent of intensive care unit beds were occupied — the highest rate since the beginning of the pandemic. Roughly 25 percent of all coronavirus tests in Arizona have come back positive this week, according to Johns Hopkins University. Arizona public health officials reported 2,695 cases on Saturday, far below Wednesday’s record 4,878 new cases.

President Donald Trump on Saturday tweeted the coronavirus surge was connected to increased testing, a theme he’s continued to push in recent weeks.

On Friday, Kim Guilfoyle, a top Trump campaign official and the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., tested positive for coronavirus before the president’s scheduled speech at Mount Rushmore. Guilfoyle is the latest person close to President Donald Trump to test positive for the virus.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh before delivering the 2019 State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Voting rights during the pandemic are in deep trouble thanks to this Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court handed down two brief, unsigned orders on Friday concerning what restrictions states may place on absentee voting during the coronavirus pandemic. Though neither order is a final judgment — one grants a temporary stay of a lower court decision, the other denies expedited review of an important voting rights case — the practical impact of both orders is that voters in Alabama and Texas will find it harder to cast a ballot during the pandemic.

The Texas order is particularly ominous because it suggests that Texas will be able to apply election rules that ensure older, Republican-leaning voters have an easy time casting a ballot — while younger voters could be forced to risk infection in order to vote.

The Alabama case

The Alabama case is Merrill v. People First of Alabama. Alabama law allows anyone to cast an absentee ballot during the pandemic, but it also imposes certain restrictions on those voters. Among other things, absentee voters must provide a copy of their photo ID, and their ballot must be signed by either two witnesses or one notary public.

A lower court blocked these restrictions “for voters who cannot safely obtain the signatures of two witnesses or a notary public due to the COVID-19 pandemic” and “for absentee voters who are over the age of 65 or disabled and who cannot safely obtain a copy of their photo ID due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” But the Supreme Court stayed that lower court decision — ensuring that, at the very least, the restrictions will be in place for Alabama’s July 14 runoff primary election.

Notably, the Supreme Court’s order in Merrill was joined only by the Court’s five Republicans. All four Democratic appointees dissented. Neither side explained why they voted the way they did.

The Texas case

The Texas case, meanwhile, is Texas Democratic Party v. Abbott, and the stakes in that case are simply enormous.

Texas law permits voters over the age of 65 to request absentee ballots without difficulty. But most voters under the age of 65 are not allowed to vote absentee. During a pandemic election, that means older voters — a demographic that has historically favored Republicans over Democrats — will have a fairly easy time participating in the November election. But younger voters will likely have to risk infection at an in-person polling site if they wish to cast a ballot.

This arrangement is difficult to square with the 26th Amendment, which provides that “the right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.”

The Court’s order in Texas Democratic Party is subtle, but it most likely means that Texas will be able to deny or abridge the right to vote on account of age, at least during the November election.

Last month, the conservative United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit blocked a trial judge’s order that would have allowed younger Texans to vote absentee. Although this Fifth Circuit order is not the appeals court’s last word on this case, it is quite unlikely that the plaintiffs in Texas Democratic Party will prevail before the Fifth Circuit, which is among the most conservative courts in the country.

So those plaintiffs asked the Supreme Court to hear their case on an expedited basis. On Friday, the Supreme Court denied that request. As a practical matter, writes SCOTUSBlog’s Amy Howe, this refusal to expedite the Texas Democratic Party case “all but eliminated the prospect that the justices will weigh in on the merits of that dispute before the 2020 election in November.”

Thus, even if the Supreme Court ultimately does decide that Texas’s age discrimination violates the 26th Amendment, that decision will almost certainly come too late to benefit anyone in November.

The Supreme Court’s orders in Merrill and Texas Democratic Party fit a pattern. Last April, in Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee, the Supreme Court granted a request from the Republican Party, and ordered all ballots mailed after a certain date in Wisconsin’s April elections to be tossed out — a decision that, in practice, likely forced thousands of voters to risk infection in order to cast an in-person ballot.

The Court’s decision in Republican National Committee was also 5-4, with all five Republican justices in the majority and all four Democrats in dissent.

In recent weeks, the Court has handed down a handful of left-leaning decisions — including a narrow decision temporarily preserving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and an even narrower decision striking down a Louisiana anti-abortion law.

But on the most important question in a democracy — whether citizens are empowered to choose their own leaders — this Supreme Court remains unsympathetic to parties seeking to protect the right to vote, despite the greatest public health crisis in more than a century.

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(808): What did you delete my number or something
(206): Oh honey. What makes you think I saved in in the first place?

As Mississippi finally removed a racist symbol from its flag, a Republican elections commissioner in the Magnolia State came under fire for expressing concern that a lot of Black people are registering to vote.

“I’m concerned about voter registration in Mississippi,” Jones County’s Gail Harrison Welch wrote on Facebook. “The blacks are having lots [of] events for voter registration. People in Mississippi have to get involved, too.”

Although her office is nonpartisan, Welch has contributed to Republican candidates and causes over the years.

The Hattiesburg American reports: Welch’s comment caused an uproar Sunday, as screen shots of the comment spread quickly on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Welch said she has received calls and messages from all over the country about the post. … But Welch, who has been the Beat 1 commissioner for 20 years, said although the comment may appear racist, her intent was far from it. “We’ve always in the past had whites really participating in registering to vote. So many people don’t seem to be concerned about (voting).” She said in an interview Monday that she thought she was sending a private message, but the comment was shared publicly on Facebook. “This was an error on my part,” she said. “I was just trying to strike a match under people and get them to vote — to get everybody to vote. This was not intended to be anything.”

Welch told WDAM-TV: “This was a big mistake. I realize I could have worded things a little better. This was based on my frustration over the past few years over low voter turnout. I’m just trying to get everybody involved in registering to vote. If everybody were as passionate as the black community about registering people, you know, that would be great.”

Watch WDAM’s report, via Crooks and Liars, below.

The post GOP Elections Official Sounds Alarm: ‘The Blacks are Having Lots of Events for Voter Registration’ (VIDEO) appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

A Christian photographer is suing Virginia officials over a statewide LGBT nondiscrimination law that went into effect this week.

The Virginia Values Act prohibits discrimination against LGBT people in employment, housing, public accommodations and credit.

Chris Herring, a Norfolk photographer, alleges in a federal complaint filed Tuesday that the law violates his First Amendment rights by forcing him to promote same-sex marriage against his religious beliefs. Herring is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has been designated as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The Virginian-Pilot reports: Herring “faces an impossible choice: violate the law and risk bankruptcy, promote views against his faith, or close down,” his attorneys wrote in the suit, filed Tuesday in federal court. “And this was exactly what Virginia officials wanted for those who hold Chris’ religious beliefs about marriage. Legislators who passed Virginia’s law called views like Chris’ ‘bigotry’ and sought to punish them with ‘unlimited punitive damages’ to remove them from the public square.” …. Herring was not available for comment but said in a news release from the alliance that “it isn’t the state’s job to tell me what I must capture on film or publish on my website. My religious beliefs influence every aspect of my life, including the stories I tell through my photography. If you’re looking for someone to photograph a red-light district or promote drug tourism, I’m not your guy. … I happily work with and serve all customers, but I can’t and won’t let the state force me to express messages that contradict my beliefs.”

The office of Attorney General Mark Herring (no relation to Chris), responded to the lawsuit in a statement: “Attorney General Herring believes that every Virginian has the right to be safe and free from discrimination no matter what they look like, where they come from, or who they love. LGBT Virginians are finally protected from housing and employment discrimination under Virginia law and Attorney General Herring looks forward to defending the Virginia Values Act in court against these attacks.”

Read the ADF’s full complaint here.

The post Photographer Sues Virginia Over LGBT Protections, Comparing Same-Sex Marriage to ‘Drug Tourism’ appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

AT&T is a prime example of how the conservative economic view of the world does not work out for anyone other than the top one percent. After being gifted tens of billions of dollars in the Republican tax giveaway, the telecom giant has proceeded to layoff thousands upon thousands of workers. In fact, since the 2017 tax “cuts,” every couple of months AT&T announces new rounds of layoffs and store closures. When AT&T was set to merge with Time Warner at the beginning of 2017, the Trump administration put up a big theatrical production about being tough on the clear monopoly, all the while never really having any seeming intention of blocking it. In fact, it came out later that many of Trump’s closest allies were wetting their beaks, getting some of that famed pay to play money behind the scenes, from AT&T.

There were all kinds of reasons to not allow AT&T and Time Warner to merge, not least of all the terrible track record that AT&T (and frankly every other telecom in the United States) has of failing to complete any of the promises they make. Promises they break when taking taxpayer money to do things like deliver low-income internet access. But AT&T made a lot of promises and they got their merger through. Now, Jared Newman over at Fast Company reports that AT&T promise to offer up a cheap streaming service, Watch TV, has been abandoned. In one respect, having offered the service for over a year, AT&T almost tripled the amount of time it pretended to keep one of its promises!

In order to get the merger through, AT&T argued that there would not be price hikes—there have been and continue to be relentless price hikes. They promised that their ownership of the new content they would acquire in the merger would not lead to leveraging that content to drive viewership away from other streaming services in competition with them—that was a lie.

AT&T’s merger has not helped the telecom company make the television splash they had hoped. The billions in debt that they acquired in the merger has been the main reason cited for the tens of thousands of layoffs they have made over the past two years. Maybe they just need another $42 billion tax break?